Malt Suzette
by GodivaGoddess33
Summary: Lore Olympus fanfic, takes place right after Chapter 79 (non-FastPass-friendly). / Hades gives Persephone a ride home from Hera's & Zeus' house, and they stop for malts along the way. He can't stop saying weird, sweet things to her, and she can't stop thinking about kissing him. Lots of playful banter, cute one-shot. Rated T for mildly suggestive language.


Characters are based upon those of Rachel Smythe of Usedbandaid's comic, Lore Olympus.

"…You know, I meant what I said earlier," Hades' voice nearly echoed off the leather interior of his car as it cracked the extended silence. He didn't know why he still found it so hard to talk to her. They were friends, right? Surely they could talk without any damnable offense being done?

Persephone started a bit as her large doe eyes turned to him from the passenger seat. "Oh? About…" she floundered, "…about understanding me wanting to connect with the mortals?"

"Well yes, that," he replied, wondering briefly if he should elaborate on the more innocent subject than what he'd really meant. "B-but, what I meant was," he persisted instead, "you really do look beautiful." He dared to quickly glance at her without turning his head from the road.

"Oh!" she straightened, then self-consciously slouched and ducked her gaze. "B-but I'm all dirty…and I'm just wearing gardening clothes."

"Even so," Hades said thoughtfully, "you always look beautiful." His heart clenched guiltily. What was he doing? Sure, Minthe had hurt him, but they were still together. He had no business saying such things to another woman, and yet…he couldn't quite stop himself.

"Oh…" Persephone said yet again, and she wondered if she'd ever be able to expand her sentence-starting vocabulary beyond that word. "W-well, um, thank you." She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. After an awkward pause, she offered, "Well you always look nice, too." Hades smiled, but before he could say "thank you", she mischievously teased, "Even though you always wear the same suit every day." She giggled.

"Tsch, I do NOT always wear the same suit!" Hades playfully scoffed.

"Yeah, you do: white shirt, black pants, black blazer, black shoes…did I miss anything?"

"I—wh—I don't—y-yeah! You missed the pocket square!" Hades smirked, pleased with himself.

"Oooohhhh," she flinched—that damn word again!—but continued, "So you have one tiiiiny little detail that's different."

"Well, and besides, I don't just wear the same exact suit every day; I do put on a different set of the things."

Persephone giggled again, enjoying the playful banter they were having. "So you just have a closet full of copies of the same exact suit?"

Hades pouted and looked sideways at her, ensuring that he made eye contact. "And so what if I do? At least I'm always clean."

Persephone gasped. "Hey! You—ooohhh you're gonna get it, now!" She quickly wiped one hand across a dusty part of her shorts and reached out toward Hades. "If you're gonna act ugly, I'm gonna make you ugly!" And before he could realize what she was doing, she swiped her palm down one arm of his crisp white shirt.

"Wha—hey!" he snapped his head toward his right arm to inspect the damage. When Persephone moved to repeat her offense, Hades grasped the steering wheel with his left hand and with his right, clomped down onto Persphone's hand. She then made her other hand dusty and attempted to use it, and in a move that even impressed himself, he snatched up both her hands within his own one. He couldn't resist smiling. Persephone laughed.

"Haha, now you're diiiiiiirty!" she teased. "Not always clean now, are ya?"

"You…are in so much trouble, little goddess," Hades half-heartedly seethed.

Persephone wriggled her hands trying to get free. "Hey, lemme go," she whined.

"Not until you promise not to stain me again."

"Ugh, okaaaay," she groaned.

"Say it."

She heaved a sigh. "I promise I won't rub dirt on you again…"

"Thank you—"

"…today."

Hades frowned at her, holding her hands and glaring at her for a moment longer before releasing her. "Close enough." He suddenly missed those hands, but he returned his grip to the steering wheel.

A more comfortable silence settled upon them, and Persephone glanced out the window.

Hades suddenly had a thought occur to him. "Hey, mind if we make a quick stop?"

"Uh, sure. What for?"

"Some very important business," he obviously lied.

"Hmmm is that so?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow up at him.

"Oh yes…but I think you'll like it. It should be right up here," he said, suddenly straining his eyes to the right corner of the horizon.

Persephone tried to look, too, but it wasn't until right as Hades started to turn the car that she saw a tiny brown sign with red painted letters.

"'Nectar of the Gods', huh?" she inquired, only finding herself further confused as they approached a shack-like building plastered in chipped yellow paint. Hades noticeably slowed the car down to allow it to gently creep over the bumpy dirt road.

"Yup, this place makes the best malts I've ever had, but it's only in Olympus. I try to stop by here whenever I'm out this way."

She perked up a little at seeing how excited he was. "Really? What's a malt?"

Hades theatrically slammed on the brakes and swerved his head around to pin her with a disbelieving stare. "You've never had a malt?!"

"N-no…" she blinked.

"Oh my gods, what—ohoho, you are in for a treat!" He was positively beaming. "A malt is…well, it's a milkshake, but better, waaay better!" He pulled the car around to a small sliding window at the back of the building. "See the menu?" He pointed to a text-flooded board to the left of the window. "They've got every flavor you could possibly think of." Persephone marveled at it, overwhelmed by the numerous choices. In doing so, she had to duck and lean her head quite close to Hades' chest, a proximity that made him slightly blush.

Just then, a yellow nymph with magenta eyeshadow and royal blue eyelashes (that did not at all match her red and white candy-striped uniform) slid open the window. "What'll it be?" she asked brusquely with a frown.

Hades turned his head back to Persephone to indicate she should order first. She internally panicked. She hadn't even read all the menu options yet!

"Um, um, well I—I don't really know what to get here. Um, why don't you just get me what you usually get?"

Hades smiled gently. "No problem." He turned to the nymph. "Two medium Malt Suzette's, please."

"800 drachma."

"Oh, um, miss, how much is mine? I'll pay for it!" Persephone half-shouted while fishing around wildly in her purse.

Hades politely held out his hand to stop her. "No, no; I've got it."

"Oh, no, but I just couldn't. Really, it's okay—"

"Persephone, don't worry about it. You save your money; it's my treat, okay?" The kind look in his eyes positively melted her heart.

"O-okay, well um, thank you! I'll owe you one, okay?" she grinned nervously.

"Sure," he agreed, though he fully did not intend to hold her to it. He handed over twice the amount of money he'd been asked for.

The nymph's eyes lit up. "Oh, thank you, mister!" She quickly pocketed her tip and deposited the rest into the register. "They'll be right out!"

As she swished away, Persephone spoke up, "That was really nice of you; I think you made her day!"

"Well, you made mine…s-so I thought I'd pay it forward." Why was he always saying such weird things to her? But then her cheerful grin reminded him exactly why.

The nymph returned just a couple short minutes later with two Styrofoam cups topped with plastic dome-protected cones of whipped cream. As Hades took them and lowered the cups down with one offered to Persephone, she noticed the whipped cream was speckled with gold and orange flecks. Curiously eyeing the golden liquid hidden beneath, she asked, "So what flavor is a Malt Suzette?"

Giddily entranced by the magical cup of heaven in front of him, Hades replied, "It's like if a crème brulee and a dreamsicle had a baby." He eagerly pursed his lips to take a drink.

"Oh…so what's crème brulee?"

Had both of Hades' hands not been cradling the cup, he would've facepalmed.

"You've never had crème brulee either?" Persephone shook her head. "Oh my gods, well I'm going to have to take you out for that sometime, too!"

Both of their eyes went wide at the implication. But then Persephone softened and said, "I'd like that." Oof—what was she doing?

Hades still looked quite frazzled. "…Okay, but first, the malt." And he emphatically pointed at her drink. He only went to sip his own shake once he saw her obediently complying with his request, and he couldn't help but visibly relax as the zesty orange-vanilla custard hit his tastebuds. Closing his eyes with a soft smile, he hummed a happy sigh; this was his absolute favorite thing ever. Persephone found it adorable. She relished in the opportunity to look at him so openly while his eyes were closed, and she studied his handsomely rugged features, starting at his sturdy jaw and tracing up the hollows of his cheeks to his low-set cheekbones, up again to those eyes that, even closed, were so full of passion and bliss, fringed by that perfectly-tousled white hair. Then her eyes followed down the slope of his charming Roman nose to where his lips pursed around the straw, and she realized why what she was seeing was so beautiful—this must be what he looks like when he's kissing. Then she wondered—

NOPE! She immediately snapped herself back to reality, her body becoming rigid as she firmly turned her head to face forward and NOT ogle her boss. When Hades' eyes finally opened again and he looked over to see her reaction to the drink, he was perplexed to find her looking…almost angry? He arched a brow at seeing her furrowed ones. "So what do you…think?" he dared to ask her.

Realizing what she must look like, Persephone tried to roll with it. "It's so good it makes me wanna punch something!" she yelled, thrusting a fist in the air for emphasis.

Deciding to merely just accept the answer, Hades chuckled, "Well, um, didn't expect that kind of reaction, but…right? It's seriously good!"

"Yeah, it's crazy delicious!" Persephone agreed, relaxing a little. It really was an amazing treat. Sure, she'd rather be tasting something else while being the other end of Hades' straw, but—OH GODS, NOPE! She stiffened again and concentrated reeeally hard on drinking her malt and staring forward.

"You know, I've heard the expression of something being so good it makes you wanna 'slap your grandma', but I never thought that was a real feeling until now," he jested, shifting his drink to one hand so he could drive with the other. "You look positively pissed."

"Yep, it's just THAT good!"

"Well, just don't hit me, okay?"

Oh, she'd hit him all right, hit him for being his stupidly handsome, unavailable self. "Can't make any promises!"

He laughed. He wasn't sure what had gotten into her, but she was so dang cute he didn't mind.

They continued the drive to Persephone's apartment, sipping and chatting, sneaking little glances at each other, noticing little things like the tiny periwinkle buds sprouting in Persephone's hair every time he made her laugh, or how sexy Hades looked leaned back in his seat driving with one arm casually outstretched to the wheel…how the rosy apples of her cheeks were dotted with freckles, how his red eyes glittered as the right corner of his mouth smirked upwards…

All too soon, they pulled up to the apartment.

"Hehe…I think I'm gonna hafta get the large size the next time I go get one of these malts!" Persephone beamed, showing off her empty cup.

"Hah, me, too," Hades pointed out his own empty cup, somewhat embarrassed. "I swear if they had one of these places in the Underworld, I'd be quite fat."

"Then Atlas might start using YOU to hold the sky up!" she joked. "Well, thanks so much for this…and for the ride home!"

"It was my pleasure." Hades' eyes radiated a warmth that held her captive for a moment longer than was necessary, and she hesitated to leave.

"U-um, well hey, if you're done with that, why don't I take it to throw away for you? That way you don't have trash in your car."

"Oh, um…sure, thanks." He handed the cup to her, but neither of them made a move to leave again for another slightly-too-long moment. "U-uh, well, here—let me get the door for you; y-your hands are full now." And he quickly scooted himself out of the car to walk around to the passenger side before she could protest, bowing and opening her door once there.

She tittered nervously at the gentlemanly gesture and gracefully swerved her legs around to stand. Hades gently guided one of her elbows as she rose. "T-thank you…again…f-for everything," she said, tilting her chin upward to meet his gaze.

"Of course; you're welcome," he stated simply, though his eyes radiated so much more. Could she see what they were saying?

_I'd give you everything, Persephone._

Her breath caught in her throat. Here they were, standing so close to each other. She could smell his smoky cologne, see his chest expand beneath his shirt, practically_ feel_ his heartbeat. She was short, but she could reach him. She could give, but just a little.

So she stepped forward, stretched upward, and swiftly pecked him on the cheek.

The reality of what she'd just done immediately slammed into her with a horrifying rush.

"I'll—I'll see you at work!" And she dashed off into the apartment in a flurry, pondering a little too late just how she was going to explain to Artemis why she was holding TWO empty cups in her hands.

Meanwhile, Hades stood there dumbfounded, looking after the little pink whoosh-ball with his mouth drawn in a taught line.

"…D-did she just…?"

His heart was an absolute wreck in the most perfectly wonderful way.


End file.
